Jan 02 2015

Cold Days by Jim Butcher

One of the biggest issues with a SF/F series is in the area of character development and growth.  While mysteries require no change to the characters themselves, a series has the difficult balancing act of maintaining accessibility for first time readers, while simultaneously rewarding fans with meaningful growth and character development.  One of the tipping points in a series is when the hero has done so well as to move out of the circumstances that started the series, and into a larger, more demanding role, which takes them out of the series premise, and into a series of power-leveling exercises against ever-more potent foes and dangers.

 

Jim Butcher’s Cold Days, the penultimate entry in the Dresden Files series, manages to avoid this issue, as the wizard Harry Dresden picks up a new role following his death and aftermath in Ghost Story, but the problems (and the wisecracks) remain. As the Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, the power level has been upped for Harry’s adversaries, but for Harry?  Not so much.

 

A good part of the novel is spent getting the band back together, as the various members of the supporting cast are reunited with Harry and wind up working with him on his latest struggle. It’s one of them more enjoyable parts of the book, as the characters are integrated more or less seamlessly into Harry’s life, with some unexpected twists since last we saw a few of them.  As the Winter Knight, there is more mayhem, and especially more intrigue, as befits a mortal working with the Sidhe.

 

The book flows really well, as I would expect from the fourteenth book in a series, but offers easy accessibility for the newcomer to the Dresden Files. Harry’s setting out on his new role as Winter Knight, and I’m curious to see how well the shift to a wider focus is going to play out in the series.  The next novel , Skin Game, is already out (and has been since May, 2014), so we’ll get a chance to see how things shake out after this debut of a new chapter in Harry’s life.

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Jan 02 2015

Taking Stock of 2014

Three themes emerged in my reading this year, without great conscious intent on my part; well, four if I count getting back to a more typical number of books read. The year did not feature any births, international relocations, invasions by neighboring countries, or major changes in employment. All of that helped in finding more time to read.

The first theme was Rick Riordan. Kid One is a huge fan and wants to discuss; ergo, I am reading them. And while I’m well outside the target audience, they are still good fun, heartfelt, and not completely obvious.

The second theme is fantasy/science fiction in translation. This is doubly fun, as the assumptions that the authors are proceeding from or the tendencies that they are extrapolating are different from the Anglo-American background that I come from. Alien worlds (or future histories or alternative histories or fantasy settings) built by someone from a foreign culture are put together differently, and I like that. I’m looking forward to reading more in this vein.

(As a side note, I only read three books in German this year, but two of them were very long, and one of them I translated, so I read it with great care. Possibly more care even than the author and his German-language editors, but that’s another story.)

The third theme is Poland. I used to have what was generously referred to as a reading knowledge of Polish. It never got as far as reading books in that language, just articles, and it has long since gotten very rusty. Nevertheless, I like Poland, Polish history and Polish literature lots, even though I have so far only managed to live there for a summer. (I suspect I am in a small minority that really likes all three of Germany, Poland, and Russia.) At any rate, there was more Poland this year than in a long time, and I was glad to pick up that thread again. There are several more books related to Poland or by Polish authors near the top of the to-be-read piles, so this trend is likely to continue.

I re-read four books this year, all after I had recommended them to a friend. They are also all books I need to be careful about picking up at all, because I find it very hard to put them down again once I have started. They are The Armageddon Rag by George R.R. Martin (to my mind, his best book qua book), Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.

Hands down, the best book of non-fiction I read was Just Kids by Patti Smith. Beautiful and touching, a memoir of her early life and a love letter to Robert Mapplethorpe. Other top non-fiction included Inside the Stalin Archive by Jonathan Brent and Red Fortress by the formidable Catherine Merridale. The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor concluded his story of walking from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in 1938, but it was unfinished at his death, and it is not quite as brilliant as the first two volumes.

Top favorites in fiction included Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie, Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin, and the aforementioned re-reads. Tintenblut and Tintentod, if you read German (although the author professes to be very happy with the English translation). Casting Fortune nearly completed my reading of John M. Ford’s works; only two short story collections remain, at least until I start re-reading. Special mention goes to The Vagrant King by E.V. Thompson, rollicking historical fiction that tempts me to say that they don’t make ’em like that anymore.

Full list, in order read, is under the fold with links to my reviews here.
Continue reading

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Jan 01 2015

Theogony / Works and Days / Shield by Hesiod

Hesiod’s poems, along with Homer’s epics, can be considered the bible of the ancient Greeks, but Hesiod’s works are far more religious in nature than Homer’s, both in theology and in moral doctrine. Theogony describes the origin of the gods and the world. I am not sure if Hesiod is simply recounting basic accepted beliefs in poetic form or if he is in fact the originator of these beliefs; I suspect no one really knows this now. In Works and Days he holds forth on edifying moral precepts, much as Solomon does in the book of Proverbs in the bible. He exhorts his wastrel, idle brother to leave idleness and devote himself to hard work, warning that poverty follows hard on the heels of idleness, just as Solomon’s Proverbs do. There is a lot of misogyny is his discussion of women; he believes they are a curse from the gods, although he acknowledges that it is worse for a man to die alone than to marry and have a family. The critics have been hard on Shield as a dull and irrelevant poem, but I found it rather exciting as a short account of one the heroic deeds of Heracles, and even the over-lengthy description of the shield itself is full of images that shed much light on early Greek culture. The critics have not been as generous to Hesiod as they have been to Homer, but that in my opinion is unfortunate, because it is these poems that establish the moral and religious framework of the early Greek mind. It is true that their literary merit is not as great as Homer’s epics, but as cultural artifacts they are immeasurably superior. And they are not wholly unenjoyable to read, for what it’s worth.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/01/theogony-works-and-days-shield-by-hesiod/

Dec 31 2014

Fear Agent Vol VI: Out Of Step by Rick Remender

Pretty sure it’s been too long between me reading this volume and the ones that preceded it, as I found the sci-fi confusing, though compelling. The only really false note for me was the internal personality struggle between Heath and his evil clone, but that was likely more an issue of pacing than plot. Otherwise a worthy end to the Fear Agent saga. I do feel that it went a little too timey-wimey for me by the end, but given that the first volume was my favorite for its straightforward cinematic space-adventure style, this should be unsurprising.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/31/fear-agent-vol-vi-out-of-step-by-rick-remender/

Dec 31 2014

A History of Britain Volume II: The Wars of the British 1603-1776 by Simon Schama

The first half of this book, on the English Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the early Restoration, was rather difficult to get through. The book really takes off in the final chapter, in which Schama explores the problems and contradictions of Britain’s imperial destiny. With consummate irony he describes the way in which British orators and rhetoricians composed paeans to the blessings of political liberty bestowed by their own uniquely enlightened form of government, only to have such lofty ideals hurled back in their teeth by disgruntled American colonists. Settling British affairs in India became a kind of compensation for losing America, but opened up temptations and moral compromises that sat uneasy on the British imperial conscience. The book ends just as the story seems to be picking up steam, but in a way that is analogous to the fate of the British Empire itself. This volume is not as readable as the first volume, but it owes much of its difficulty to the difficult period it covers.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/31/a-history-of-britain-volume-ii-the-wars-of-the-british-1603-1776-by-simon-schama/

Dec 30 2014

Pariah Vol II by Aron Warner, Philip Gelatt and Brett Weldele

Entertaining take on dystopian (YA) fiction. I really liked how the emotions are balanced with the tech, even as I freely admit that I hated the ending of the first issue and am desperately hoping that Hal manages to break free later. Clever and promising, but still definitely in the build stage of the overarching plot and not outstanding on its own.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/30/pariah-vol-ii-by-aron-warner-philip-gelatt-and-brett-weldele/

Dec 30 2014

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Blood of Elves is billed as “a novel of the witcher” and this same witcher, Geralt of Rivia, is blurbed as the inspiration “for the critically acclaimed video game The Witcher,” which tells me some interesting things right away. First, that one way to get fantasy translated into English, it helps to have a popular video game behind it. That’s different from how I understood much of the book-game relationship to work. I had thought that recognizable books spawned games as offshoots, often after the book or series had been adapted into a movie or television production. The way things flow through pop culture keeps changing.

Next, it’s “a novel,” not first in a trilogy or “the novel” or something else. Geralt’s story is likely to be open-ended in some form or fashion. The Last Wish seems to precede in the character’s chronology, although both begin in media res. Blood of Elves is the first in a longer narrative about impending war between the various small kingdoms and countries where Geralt has wandered and had adventures and a larger power to the north. In the book it’s called Nilfgaard, but consonant with the author’s Polish background, could well be called Muscovy or Russia. It is an existential threat to the kingdoms, led by a ruthless autocrat.

As in The Last Wish, the author’s background gives the setting and the story a different cast from someone steeped in Anglo-American fantasy. For example, the pacing is simply different from what I expected in a fantasy novel. There’s not the kind of orderly progression of events or obstacles; there’s not a climax to mark the end of the first book; the action does not even follow the series’ titular character for much of the book. Indeed, Blood of Elves is as much about other characters — the minstrel Dandilion, the enchantress Triss, and above all the possible child of prophecy Ciri — as it is about Geralt. It’s also about the settings and locations, from the witchers’ near-deserted castle to the university town with an obvious model (it’s called Oxenfurt) to the river delta where Geralt really does perform some derring-do.

Danusia Stok‘s translation has rendered Sapkowski faithfully into the English of fantasy adventure.

I liked Blood of Elves precisely because it confounded my expectations, without any self-conscious effort on the author’s part to do so. Fantasy that comes out of another tradition of storytelling is that much more fantastical, simply by being true to its origins. One of my favorite characters (the hilariously annoying adolescent Everett) is a complete walk-on, but Sapkowski’s willingness to add in the extraneous makes his world more believable and his story more enjoyable. I’m looking forward to finding out what happens in the next novels, and I expect to be surprised.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/30/blood-of-elves-by-andrzej-sapkowski/

Dec 28 2014

The Republic by Plato

Plato covers a range of subjects in this rambling work, but the chief one is the problem of what constitutes the best society. Naturally, Plato thinks that in any ideal society, the philosophers will be in charge. His Republic resembles Thomas More’s Utopia in that it would be a place where the citizens were incomparably virtuous; it would also be a pretty boring place where all fun was outlawed. He proceeds by rather implausible arguments to establish that the virtuous life is the happiest life, and therefore the virtuous society is the happiest society; I myself have serious doubts about this. He dislikes democracy as a disorderly society in which base people are allowed to indulge their whims and appetites to excess and in which the masses are easily led astray by demagogues; he has little faith that ordinary people left to themselves will accomplish anything good. Art is seen as having little value, but strangely even manual labor is disdained even though it is recognized as necessary; Plato is a true gentleman who sniffs at those who work with their hands. Finally, Plato argues that the soul is immortal and that good and evil meet their just reward in the afterlife; without this principle one might well wonder what the point of a strenuously virtuous life really is. I am afraid I do not find any of Plato’s arguments very convincing; the interlocutors which he places in Socrates’ audience are basically yes men who are far too quick to agree with all of his propositions without offering any serious criticism. Like all philosophers of his type he is too quick to assume that all serious philosophers will naturally arrive at the same conclusions that he has arrived at; he does not foresee that ten different philosophers are likely to arrive at ten different philosophies. Yet he deserves credit for taking on such an important issue and giving it serious thought, even if like Marx he recognizes the problem while proposing a solution that is even worse.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/28/the-republic-by-plato/

Dec 27 2014

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

This play was much more serious than I remembered it being. It is certainly not a play about nothing. The verbal fencing between Benedick and Beatrice is priceless, but there is much more to the play than that, and there is more dark subject matter than light comedy in it. Thankfully the evil is thwarted and the story is prevented from being another Romeo and Juliet, but the villain is allowed to escape unpunished, and tragedy is barely averted, just as it is in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Even when Shakespeare is amusing himself and playing for laughs there is something of the tragic in him that comes to the surface; he is too great an artist to forget himself in laughter for long.

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Dec 27 2014

The Epic of Gilgamesh

This is the third time I have read this story, and it never fails to amaze me with its power and its timelessness. Gilgamesh is the first legendary hero known to history, and like a true legendary hero his story is tragic. He achieves great things, but loses his best friend, and is haunted by the knowledge that he and all other men will come to the same fate. He goes on a quest to discover the secret of immortality, and when he finds it he resolves to bring it back to his people and share it with them, but at the last moment he is cheated of his prize, and in the end he perishes as all men must. The universality of a story like this cannot be overstated. Man constantly struggles to overcome obstacles and create lasting works, but in the end the dust claims him and all his achievements. The gods are portrayed as they always are, rulers of man’s fate who are indifferent when they are not downright cruel, and hardly worthy of the devotion they demand of their human subjects. There is religion in this myth, but not any kind of religion that inspires hope. I am reminded upon reading this story that of all the heroes of history, only one has successfully triumphed over death.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/27/the-epic-of-gilgamesh/